The first stage, led by Professor Wraith showed that the immune system can be tricked into recognising MBP by presenting it with repeated doses of a highly soluble fragment of the protein that the white blood cells respond to. By repeatedly injecting the same fragment of MBP, the process whereby the immune system learns to distinguish between the body’s own proteins and those that are foreign can be mimicked. The process, which is a similar type of immunotherapy to that previously used to desensitise people against allergies, showed that the white blood cells that recognise MBP switched from attacking the proteins to actually protecting the body.